DescriptionBackground: Obesity is a growing global epidemic affecting billions of people worldwide and is associated with increased healthcare costs, morbidity, and mortality. Mobile health (mHealth) technology is an emerging technology that offers a positive outlook in helping to combat obesity. The collaboration of health care providers and mHealth applications can motivate patients to lose weight and live healthier lives.Purpose of Project: The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a mHealth intervention for weight loss among overweight and obese patients in a primary care setting.
Methodology: A quality improvement project using a pretest and posttest design, conducted over 12 weeks. Upon enrollment and at the end of the study, participants completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short form and Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, had their body weight measured, and BMI calculated. Participants also had their weight measured at weeks four, eight, and 12 . The data were analyzed by non-parametric Wilcoxon rank tests and Friedman test.
Results: All participants achieved weight loss. However, no statistically significant difference in weight loss (p = .08) and BMI (p = .109). No statistically significant result for walking, doing moderate activities and doing vigorous activity, (p = .07, p = .66, p = .32 respectively). No statistically significant difference in the eating behaviors of cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating, or emotional eating behavior ( p = .14; p = .29; p = .07 respectively).
Implications for Practice: mHealth can enhance current standards of practice by helping overweight and obese patients adopt better self-management skills geared towards maintaining a healthy lifestyle through weight loss and implicate clinical practices to incorporate mHealth technology for weight management. Furthermore, there can be implication of policies that regulate and protect the use of such technology for weight management.